Is Stubb's Hickory bourbon legendary bar-b-q sauce, hickory bourbon ultra-processed?

510 g (18oz) Barbecue sauces Sold in the United States, Australia and 2 more countries

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Flavouring
Thickener
E412 Guar gum
E415 Xanthan gum

20 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score D

Less processed barbecue sauces

Less processed isn't automatically healthier, so compare the labels for what matters to you, such as sugar or salt.

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Tomato puree (water, tomato paste), sugar (processing marker), distilled vinegar, molasses (processing marker), bourbon, salt (processing marker), corn starch (processing marker), spices (including red pepper), contains less than 0.5% of (natural flavor (ultra-processing marker) (including hickory smoke)), onion, garlic, guar gum (ultra-processing marker) (thickener (ultra-processing marker)), xanthan gum (ultra-processing marker) (thickener (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E412 Guar gum , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Tomato puree (water, tomato paste), sugar, distilled vinegar, molasses, bourbon, salt, corn starch, spices (including red pepper), contains less than 0.5% of: natural flavor (including hickory smoke), onion, garlic, guar gum (thickener), xanthan gum (thickener).

What makes it ultra-processed

Cosmetic additives

Added to change how the food looks, feels or tastes, not to keep it safe. A hallmark of ultra-processed food.

E412 Guar gum Guar gum is a thickener ground from the seeds of the guar plant.
E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.

3 ingredients that would only make it processed

Kitchen staples like sugar, salt and oil. On their own they make a food processed, not ultra-processed.

Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 107 barbecue sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 65th. 86% of the barbecue sauces here are ultra-processed.

Ranked by NOVA group, then by the number of ultra-processing signs, additives and ingredients. Our ordering, not part of NOVA.

All 107 barbecue sauces, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0734756000082, last edited 18 March 2026), available under the Open Database License. If something is wrong or the recipe has changed, you can correct it there.
Photo: Open Food Facts contributors, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The NOVA group is an automated estimate from crowdsourced data: a missing or mistyped ingredient can change it.
NOVA measures processing, not nutrition. For nutrition, Open Food Facts gives this product a Nutri-Score of D (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.